All eyes are on sweeping water measure in governor's hands

June 20, 2009|By Kevin Spear, Sentinel Staff Writer

Environmentalists hold as one of their main strengths the ability to rally grass-roots supporters and raise a formidable protest at public hearings.

That's why they detest a key part of the water bill that Gov. Charlie Crist is expected to sign or veto in the coming week. The bill would strip board members of the state's water districts of significant authority, leaving key decisions to be made by the head bureaucrat at each of the agencies.

Districts would hold fewer board votes on matters such as which cities can tap the state's rivers and aquifers for water, or when developers can destroy wetlands. Proponents call it a step toward improved efficiency.

Yet the bill, called SB 2080, has a lot more in it for Crist to consider. It contains parts and pieces of legislation salvaged from a variety of other bills that stalled during this year's session of the state Legislature. The disparate components were swiftly cobbled together during the session's closing days.

SB 2080 spells out what could become some of the state's most progressive conservation measures. But it also includes funding guidelines for Everglades restoration, protective standards for rivers of Southwest Florida, and a way for the state's biggest landowners to lock up lucrative water rights for as much as a half-century.

There's much to like and oppose for all sides. On balance, environmental activists want Crist to veto the bill. Business backers want it to become law.

A former top bureaucrat at two water districts, Henry Dean, supports many aspects of SB 2080. Still, he has asked Crist to veto the bill because it would give too much advantage to utilities and developers.

Eric Draper, Audubon of Florida's deputy director, said he opposes SB 2080 because it boils down to an attempt to shut citizens out of environmental decisions.

Others, such as longtime water lawyer Ed de la Parte of Tampa, disputes that notion, suggesting environmentalists will get better results by having to meet with only one official instead of nine board members.

Critical timing

The water bill has hit the governor's desk just as the St. Johns River Water Management District, which regulates most of Central Florida's water consumption, is engaged in some highly contentious issues.

Last year, the district's executive director recommended issuing a permit to Niagara Bottling Co. to pump nearly a half-million gallons a day of aquifer water from south Lake County. That has infuriated people in the county who say it amounts to theft from a shrinking water supply.

In April, district board members voted 5-4 to let Seminole County take about 5 million gallons daily from the St. Johns River, which environmentalists and river defenders say sets a course toward devastating the river's ecosystem.

Both issues, now entangled in legal challenges, have led to criticisms that the district listens more to utilities and private companies than to area residents. And if SB 2080 is signed into law, it could further fuel suspicions about what motivates water districts and the lawmakers who control them.

State Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, sponsored the original SB 2080. Late in the session, he said, he was asked by state Rep. Denise Grimsley, R-Lake Placid, to add the provision that would transfer much of the board members' authority to each district's executive director.

Alexander said he was assured by Grimsley the provision had not drawn controversy, an assertion Grimsley repeated in a recent interview. Just how much debate the provision received during the legislative session is in dispute. But soon after the session ended, Alexander began drawing the scrutiny of a variety of environmental advocates who hinted at potential conflicts of interest.

Alexander is part of a family tied to the business fortune of the late Ben Hill Griffin Jr., which has a significant stake in a vast number of agricultural and industrial holdings in Central and South Florida. Among them is a 62,000-acre ranch in Highlands County targeted for massive urban development in a rural area with limited water supplies. Family-controlled ventures within the Southwest Florida Water Management District already hold permits to use more than 5 million gallons of water daily, or enough for a small city.

As a state senator, Alexander already takes part in confirming the appointments of water-district executive directors -- the officials who stand to gain additional authority under SB 2080. District board members are appointed by the governor.

Alexander said the Grimsley provision was just one small part of the flurry of activity that leads to the assembling of a bill from the best parts of other legislation doomed to fail.

"To say that this is somehow about me -- that's offensive," he said.

Eye toward future

Among other elements of the bill is one that goes to the heart of Central Florida's water future.